


where your heart is set in stone

by kat777



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Babysitting, Fluff, Future Fic, Gen, Kid Fic, M/M, One Big Happy Family, background Reynabeth
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-04-06
Updated: 2014-04-06
Packaged: 2018-01-18 09:03:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1422424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kat777/pseuds/kat777
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Percy bounced over to them and tugged on one of his daughter’s curls. “Hey, princess, tell him Daddy’s not a liar.”</p><p>She smushed her nose into Nico’s cheek and whisper-yelled, “Daddy’s a liar!”</p><p>“A big fat liar,” Nico suggested as Percy spluttered indignantly.</p><p>“Yeah, a big fat liar!”</p><p>OR, the year is 2020, Nico agrees to babysit a four year old for the week leading up to Independence Day, and maybe, just maybe, he and Percy will finally get their act together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	where your heart is set in stone

**Author's Note:**

> Er. So, kidfic, yeah. Like I said in the tags, there's a lot of minor characters in this. They'll pop up chapter by chapter. And there will be 7 chapters in total, one for each day Nico is babysitting. There's also minor stuff about canon pairings like Hazel/Frank, Leo/Calypso (does that count as a canon pairing?), Sally/Paul, etc. (Because of course everyone survived and they’re all living happily ever after shhhhhhh that’s exactly what will happen of course it is.) Also really minor mentions of past Nico/OMCs and past Percy/OCs. 
> 
> I don't own the PJO or HoO series, Rick Riordan does. The title of this fic is from Gabrielle Aplin's song Home.

**Sunday June 28 th**

“I just don’t understand why you agreed to it,” Hades ranted, one hand lifting from the arm of his throne and spearing the air dramatically as if to emphasize his utter confusion and incredulity. “You are a child of the Underworld, son of the god of death and riches, such labor is _beneath_ you—”

“ _Labor_.” Nico snorted, not even attempting to hide his eye roll the way he would’ve nine or ten years ago. He’d long since learned that for all his father’s bluster, Nico would have to do something truly unforgivable to incur his wrath for real. “Gods, listen to yourself. I’m not wrestling a Nemean Lion or cleaning up stables full of horse poop, I’m babysitting a four—almost five—year old child.”

“Who happens to be the daughter of Percy Jackson!” his father reminded him. “The boy—”

“Father, he’s twenty-six—”

“The _boy_ who has been a thorn in my side for over a decade!” Hades almost shouted over him. “The boy who has never shown me an ounce of respect! The boy who—”

“Got your Helm of Darkness back?” Nico suggested. “Got you a throne on Olympus, and a cabin at Camp Half-Blood? And helped recover your sword, _and_ helped free Thanatos and close the Doors of Death. Not to mention all the times he’s saved Hazel’s life and mine—”

Hades laughed bitterly. “Oh, sure. He helped two of my three demigod children—and got the other killed! And then had the _nerve_ to name his infernal offspring after her—”

Nico fought to keep his cool as he replied through gritted teeth, “That wasn’t Percy’s fault, and you know it. And I _told_ you, he and Annabeth chose that for their daughter’s middle name to honor Bianca—”

“Yes, yes, so you keep saying.” Hades waved his hand dismissively. “And somehow that makes you obligated to look after the child for an entire _week_?”

“I’m not obligated to do anything.” Nico deserved an _award_ for his god-like patience right now. Or all of them. “As I’ve already explained—several times, I might add—I _volunteered_. Percy is needed on a quest, and since it’s so last minute Annabeth and Reyna couldn’t get the time off work.”

“What about the boy’s parents? Or the girl’s?”

“Mr. and Mrs. Chase are on vacation in the Bahamas right now. And Mr. and Mrs. Blowfis have their own kid to take care of and Percy didn’t want to burden them.”

“Oh, but it’s perfectly all right to burden _you_ —”

Seriously, Nico deserved _all_ the awards, Olympic Medals and Nobel Peace Prizes and everything else.

“I volunteered,” he repeated slowly. Honestly, little Vivi had better comprehension skills than Hades was displaying right now and she hadn’t even started Kindergarten yet. “I’ve babysat her plenty of times before, so she’s used to me. And I pretty much live at Percy’s anyways, so I can just look after her there instead of her having to stay at someone else’s house for a week. She’ll be more comfortable in her own home.”

Well, _one_ of her homes. Three years later and Nico still couldn’t believe Percy and Annabeth had broken up.

“Yes, and that’s another thing.” Hades frowned. “What _exactly_ is it you and Jackson are doing?”

“What do you mean?” Nico asked, confused. They didn’t seem to be on the same page anymore. Weren’t they just talking about why he was best suited to take care of Vivian for the week?

Hades frowned harder like he thought Nico was being purposely difficult. “I am not well-versed in mortal customs, but I believe the level of co-dependency you and Jackson have reached in the past few years is generally indicative of, shall we say, romantic attachment?”

“What.”

“Son.” His father stared at him intensely. “I distinctly remember you telling me some years ago that you had a, er, _crush_ on Percy Jackson. Now, I won’t pretend I wasn’t extremely relieved when you eventually informed me that you had gotten over it, but if those feelings have…resurfaced—”

“ _What_.”

“—all that would happen is my belief that you have _appalling_ taste in men would be reaffirmed—”

Focusing in on that last part snapped Nico out of his shock. “Father, for the _last time_ , I had no way of knowing that boy in Oklahoma was plotting to steal your sword and use it to resurrect Socrates and his followers—”

Hades grumbled something unintelligible under his breath. Nico still didn’t know what his beef with Socrates was, he just hoped to Zeus he never found out.

“The point is, if you and Jackson are… _dating_.” His face contorted like he’d eaten something unpleasant and couldn’t get the taste out of his mouth. “Or in any sort of non-platonic relationship… Well. You can tell me.”

Grudgingly, he promised, “I won’t send the Furies after him again.”

“Of course we’re not _dating_ ,” Nico insisted, face burning. “It’s just for convenience, I’m a poor medical student who can’t afford my own place, and Percy’s my best friend so I stay with him when I don’t feel like crashing at Hazel’s or Camp Half-Blood.”

“Or here,” Hades tacked on sulkily.

Nico stared. Ah, there it was. The real reason Hades was protesting Nico agreeing to babysit for a week. A week babysitting meant a week not spent with his father. To be fair, it _was_ summer. Poor guy was probably lonely.

“Well. Percy’s expecting me any minute now, so.” Nico gestured vaguely over his shoulder. “I’m just gonna go.”

Right before leaving, he added, “You might want to try installing Skype on your computer so you can contact Persephone. Or you could take your chances with a mortal woman, see how long your wife turns your skin fuchsia this time. Best of luck, Dad.”

Nico melted into the shadows before Hades could tell him he was grounded.

* * *

When Nico arrived in the Jacksons’s living room, he found Tyson racing around the couch with his niece on his shoulders, trying to escape Ella who was playfully snatching at Vivian from the air.

Nico waited patiently for them to notice he was there. He was in no rush, they’d have to wait for Percy to join them anyways—the guy had a bad habit of procrastinating on, well, lots of things, but especially packing. Granted, Percy probably wouldn’t be taking that much with him on a quest, but Nico was still willing to bet all the fingers on his right hand that the son of Poseidon was, at that very moment, frantically stuffing bandages or ambrosia into a backpack.

“Nico!” A shriek startled him out of his thoughts.

Vivian wiggled around on Tyson’s shoulders until he grabbed her gently and set her down on the floor. The second her feet touched the ground she took off running right at Nico, who caught her and swung her up into a hug.

“Hey, Vivi,” he said into her hair, shifting to settle her more comfortably on his hip. “How’s it going?”

She propped her little chin up on his shoulder and babbled into his ear, “Daddy said you’re gonna take care of me for the week. He said we were gonna bake brownies and cake and eat lots of ice cream with chocolate syrup and candy and—”

“Whoa there, hold on a second,” Nico interjected, amused. He had a feeling Percy had said nothing of the sort.

She ignored him. “—and we’re gonna go to the park _every day_ , then the beach and—”

“Viv, you’re gonna scare him off and I’ll have to find another babysitter,” came Percy’s voice from the staircase. When he reached the bottom he smiled at Nico and said, “Regretting agreeing to this yet, di Angelo?”

“You wish, Jackson,” Nico retorted automatically, then thought about it for a second. “Or, I guess you don’t, actually, seeing as you have no other options.”

“Last resort,” Percy teased, and the funny thing was, that wasn’t true.

Nico _was_ the only real option—in addition to Annabeth, Reyna and the mortal grandparents being unavailable, Hazel and Frank were busy with wedding planning, Jason and Piper were on basically on a second honeymoon, Leo and Calypso had just opened their garage, Grover and Juniper had a newborn to look after, Rachel had an art show later in the week to prepare for, Chiron had a camp to run, Tyson and Ella were going on the quest with Percy, Clarisse and Chris had their hands full with triplets, and the day Percy handed his child into Coach Hedge’s care for more than a few hours at a time would probably be the day the world ended. (Though, to be fair, the satyr had been a father longer than Percy had, and as far as Nico knew he’d been doing a pretty good job.)

Which left Nico. But Percy hadn’t gone to all those other people first. After finding out about the quest and talking with Annabeth and Reyna he’d mentioned the situation to Nico, who had volunteered, and then he’d told him, in a relieved voice, that he’d wanted to ask Nico but didn’t want him to feel obligated.

(“She’ll be more comfortable with you,” he’d said. “And she’ll be having a lot of fun so she won’t miss her parents too much.”

“How do you figure that?” Nico had asked.

“Because you’re a lot of fun to be around.” And to Nico’s utter disbelief, Percy hadn’t even sounded like he was joking.)

“Haha.” Nico said half-heartedly, then nodded at the backpack in Percy’s hand with a smirk as he continued, “Last-minute packing?”

“ _Noooooo_ ,” Percy said, drawing the word out in an exaggeratedly guilty voice to make Vivian laugh.

“Liar.”

Percy bounced over to them and tugged on one of his daughter’s curls. “Hey, princess, tell him Daddy’s not a liar.”

She smushed her nose into Nico’s cheek and whisper-yelled, “Daddy’s a liar!”

“A big fat liar,” Nico suggested as Percy spluttered indignantly.

“Yeah, a big fat liar!”

Percy looked between them, then over his shoulder at Tyson and Ella who were laughing, and complained, “You’re all traitors. Every last one of you.”

“Oh, stop pouting. Here, take this little monster from me, my arms are getting tired.”

“Been letting yourself get out of shape, huh?” Percy said with a smirk as he took his daughter from Nico.

“I’d like to see _you_ find the time to work out while studying to be a doctor.”

“Yes, well, thankfully I decided not to put myself through that torture,” he said dryly. Then, softer: “Not all of us are brilliant enough to get into medical school.”

Nico stood stock still, a flush creeping up his neck and into his cheeks, caught in Percy’s gaze and the sincerity he found there.

The moment was abruptly broken when Vivian, used to being the centre of attention, patted her father’s face and said sternly, “Da- _ddy_.”

Tyson and Ella came to stand in a little circle with them, the former saying, “Brother, I think we need to leave soon. It is not nice to keep Delphin waiting.”

Percy cleared his throat, tearing his eyes away from Nico’s to look at his daughter. “Right. We should get going. How about you say goodbye to Tyson and Ella while I talk to Nico for a second?”

When he set Vivian down on the ground, she obediently went to hug her uncle, so he turned his attention to Nico.

“Well,” Nico said awkwardly.

“Don’t worry too much, okay? You’ll be fine, you’ve taken care of her plenty of times before,” Percy encouraged.

How did he always know? Nico had thought he’d been hiding his nerves perfectly. “Yeah, I know, just… Never for an entire week. By myself.”

“You’ll be fine,” Percy repeated. “And you can always call my mom over if you’re feeling overwhelmed, or visit Camp for a while, and I think Jason and Piper and some of the others might be dropping in at some point. So you’re not really by yourself.”

He slid an arm around Nico’s shoulders and drew him into an embrace. “Even if you were, you could totally still handle it. You’re Wonder Babysitter, remember?”

Nico slipped his arms around Percy’s waist and hugged him back, at the same time reminding him, laughingly, “You decided that like four years ago on the grounds that I managed to quiet her down after that fake Santa Clause freaked her out the day we went shopping for Annabeth’s Christmas present. I don’t think that really counts as babysitting. I could be the Baby Whisperer, maybe, but I don’t know how much that would help. She’s not a baby anymore.”

“I know,” Percy said, sounding strangely melancholy, so Nico held him tighter, stroked a hand up his back and through his hair, let him bury his face in Nico’s shoulder for several long moments.

Finally, they pulled apart, arms falling to their sides, and just stared at each other for a bit until Percy broke the silence.

“Well, you know where everything is. Except the—” He glanced quickly at where Vivian was now hugging Ella, then looked back at Nico and mouthed, _cookies_. “I moved them. They’re on the top shelf in the right-hand corner of the living room, hidden behind one of the huge model airplanes Annabeth’s dad gave Viv for her birthday last year.”

“Okay.” Nico smiled at Percy, who beamed back, kissed him on the cheek and walked away before he could react. Though honestly, Percy did that sort of thing too often for him to genuinely be shocked.

“Hey, princess,” Percy said, crouching down in front of his daughter, who was starting to tear up now that it was really time for her father to leave. “Can I get another hug before I go?”

She threw her arms around his neck and he said, “You’re gonna be good for Nico, right?”

She nodded into his shoulder.

“And you’re gonna have lots of fun?”

She sniffed a little but nodded again.

“And I’ll IM you every day, starting tonight, and so will Mommy, okay?”

“Okay,” she mumbled, pulling back and letting him wipe her tears away.

He cradled her face in his hands and told her, “I love you very, very much.”

“Love you,” she said, planting a kiss on the tip of her dad’s nose, making him laugh. Percy kissed her forehead before getting to his feet.

He looked between Vivian and Nico, between his daughter and his best friend, and smiled. “I’ll be home before you know it!” he promised.

Ever since Ella had discovered iPods, instead of randomly reciting information she’d found in books she often sang lines she’d heard from songs. And as she and Tyson followed Percy out of the house and into his car, waving at Vivian and Nico standing in the front doorway, she sang something about home, about how it was a place where your heart was set in stone.

Then the car door closed, blocking out her voice, and Nico held the little girl who cried as her father drove away.

* * *

Vivian was quiet for the rest of the day, sitting through the entirety of _Lilo and Stitch_ , eating all of her vegetables during dinner and not even asking about cookies. She perked up when Percy Iris-messaged her as promised, but her smile fell when the conversation was done and her dad had disappeared.

It was bedtime when Annabeth IMed. Vivian had miraculously put on her owl pajamas with little prompting from Nico and had just climbed under the covers when an image of Annabeth appeared in the air, her curly blond hair tied up in a messy bun.

“Mommy!” Vivian cried, delight in her voice.

“Hey, baby, how are you?” Annabeth asked, smiling so wide Nico swore he saw dimples. “Getting ready for bed?”

“Yes!”

“And you’ve been behaving for Nico?”

Vivian sat up straighter. “Yes! I ate all my vegetables and put on my jam-jams right away!”

“It’s true,” Nico chimed in. “I thought I might have to wrestle her into them but I only had to say the magic word.”

“Good girl,” Annabeth said, voice brimming over with affection. “Well, I’ll let you get to bed—”

“No, no!” Vivian snatched at the air with both hands as if to keep her mother there. “You have to tell me a bedtime story.”

“I’m sure Nico could—”

“Don’t be silly,” Nico interrupted, grinning. “Everyone knows your bedtime stories are the best, Anna-Banana.”

Annabeth’s right eye twitched when she heard the nickname and Nico knew that if it weren’t for her daughter’s presence, she’d be giving him a glare so cold it would stop him dead in his tracks—probably literally.

“If you insist, Ni-Ni,” she said in a poisonously sweet voice, and Nico didn’t know whether to scowl or laugh, so he just grabbed one of Vivian’s pillows and waved it over his head like a white flag, mouthing, _Truce?_

Her lips quirked upwards like she couldn’t help herself. “I _do_ tell the best bedtime stories. All right, here we go.”

Vivian leaned forward, Nico clasped his hands in his lap, and together they were the picture of attentiveness.

“Once upon a time, in a kingdom far, far away,” Annabeth began, and then told them the story of the Knight who’d gone to rescue the kidnapped Princess only for the supposed damsel-in-distress to leap out at him with a sword when he tried to slay the sleeping Dragon.

“And the Princess kicked his butt, right?” Vivian interrupted.

“She did indeed,” the storyteller replied in a very serious tone. “For the Dragon was a good friend, and she hadn’t been kidnapped, she’d merely come for a visit. Once she explained this to the Knight, he sheathed his sword and apologized for the intrusion—”

“And then they all became friends,” little Vivi interjected again, clearly having heard the story enough times to know the ending—or to decide she wanted to make up her own. “And they met for tea in the Dragon’s castle every Tuesday, and the Knight fell in love with the baker’s daughter in the village and married her, and the Princess went to college and got a green—”

“Degree,” her mother corrected gently.

“—a degree, and she became Queen and President and she never let anyone hurt nice dragons ever again,” Vivian finished, out of breath.

Nico blinked. “Well. I guess we know who _really_ tells the best bedtime stories around here.”

“Couldn’t agree more,” Annabeth murmured, eyes soft on her daughter’s face. “That was a beautiful story, Vivian.”

Vivian beamed, but after a second her smile faltered. “Is it time to say goodnight?”

“It is. But I’ll Iris-message you again tomorrow,” Annabeth promised, and blew a kiss to her daughter. “I love you, Vivi.”

“I _loooove_ you,” Vivian immediately said back, smiling again with a missing front tooth and dimples almost as subtle as her mother’s.

“You better kiss my daughter goodnight, di Angelo,” Annabeth mock-threatened, and through his laughter he assured her, “I will, Chase.”

Annabeth swept her hand through the image and it vanished. Nico watched Vivian’s face carefully, and when a pout appeared he knocked his knuckles gently against her temple and said, “Hey, none of that. It’s sleep time.”

She lay back down and he tucked the covers in around her snuggly, brushed her hair out of her face and kissed her forehead.

“Goodnight, Vivian,” he whispered, and got up to turn off the lights.

With a voice full of mischief, she whispered back, “Goodnight, Ni-Ni.”

As he shut the door behind him, he vowed he would make Annabeth Chase pay.

...As soon as he stopped laughing.

**Author's Note:**

> Never written Hades before, so I hope his characterization was okay. Also, I hope Vivian wasn't too cutesy or whatever--I have a few little cousins in that age range, so I have an okay idea of how a four/almost five year old might act, but I'm not so confident in the part where I try to translate that into writing, so. Basically, feedback on that would be appreciated.
> 
> Also, I came across the Nico-as-a-med-student headcanon somewhere on Tumblr, and I don't know if it's a big thing in the fandom or just a couple people, but either way it was definitely NOT my idea.
> 
> Anyways, I will try to have the next chapter done within the week, though it might be a bit shorter than this one.


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